Affirmation
by Child of Loc Lac
Summary: "I've always been fascinated by people willing to take up arms in order to stand against the darkness. So tell me child, why do you fight?" The story of how four students find their answer. (OC team)
1. The Silver Prince

The Silver Prince

It was a calm and peaceful evening in the kingdom of Vale. The sun was beginning to set, casting the city in a soft red glow. Even the combat school Signal was quiet this day, most students resting after an exhausting day of tests, or sitting in nervous quiet waiting on tenterhooks to see whether they passed or failed. Well quiet except for one student walking towards the main gate whistling the tune to some half remembered song, his school uniform loosened to allow easier breathing. The red light of the sunset illuminated his full five foot eleven inch height, white hair and piercing blue eyes.

"And where exactly do you think you're going Mr. Fulgar," A deep voice growled as a tall middle aged man sporting a pair of impressive antlers on top of his balding head stepped out of the guardhouse. The man glared at the youth before him daring the student to challenge his authority.

"Well Mr. Smith there's this lovely little brunette that I promised a dance to and a gentleman does not renege on a promise. Especially promises made to lovely young ladies." The white haired teenager replied trying to give off an aura of refinement and dignity.

"Shouldn't you be waiting for your test results Argent," the older man sighed.

"What and deny the ladies even one night of my dashing good looks? Now that sir is criminal." The young man now identified as Argent Fulgar replied with mock hurt and indignation.

"You know, if you're feeling nervous about the tests and want to blow off steam just say so," Mr. Smith replied his expression softening into one of concern.

"Am I really that open a book to you," Argent replied while rubbing the back of his neck nervously, all sense of bravado gone.

"You're parents asked me to keep an eye you for a reason," Mr. Smith replied "Buck up, you worked twice as hard and twice as long as anyone else. If someone is getting into Beacon tonight, it's you." He finished while placing a comforting hand on the young man's shoulder.

"You think so?" Argent asked quietly

"I know so. Just make sure not to forget about us small timers while you're up in your ivory towers." Mr. Smith answered with a smile.

"What and leave behind your wife's delicious pies? I think not." Argent said some of his old confidence returning. He shrugged of the older man's hand before continuing on his way out of Signal.

"Don't forget to show up for dinner tomorrow to celebrate," Mr. Smith yelled after Argent. "Forget or be late and the missus will have both our hides."

"I'll be sure to show up. I like my skin right where it is thank you very much." Argent laughed while waving goodbye to his older friend. As soon as he turned the corner and was out of sight Argent's entire demeanor changed. Gone was the spring to his step or the joyful grin, instead was a determined stride and a hard edge to his eyes. He took out an old, silver pocket watch with a stylized lightning bolt striking the ground. Opening it he found he had three hours to be in position, time was not on his side. He quickened his pace.

An hour later found him in a deserted alleyway connected to a forgotten street. After making sure no one was around he removed a loose brick from the wall allowing him to open a secret compartment. Inside he pulled out a cloth wrapped bundle, from within this bundle he pulled out his combat gear and quickly changed into it. Standing up revealed him in a large silver coat open in the front with the same stylized lightning bolt from his watch on its back, dark grey pants and shirt and a silver breastplate. He then pulled out three sticks from the dwindling pile of gear still in the clothe bundle before him. He connected these sticks together to form a staff. On one end was a large reinforced lightning Dust crystal with the words "Glorious Fulmination" engraved just below, on the other end was the barrel of a rifle. The trigger and clip case were located in the middle of the weapon. Finally he gingerly pulled out the last item he hidden away earlier this week. Obtaining one had not been easy. Making sure it was whole he put it into one the many pockets in his coat. After ensuring everything was a go he channeled some of his aura into his coat. It shone for a brief second before reflecting the colors surrounding him, giving him some camouflage from watchful eyes. With that he climbed the building before him and took off into the night.

* * *

The sun had set and Vale was enveloped in the embrace of night. Argent was hiding in a tall building that had a wonderful view of the rooftop access to the building next to it. 'They're late' he thought to himself glancing at his heirloom pocket watch. 'If he was wrong about the time and place I'm going to have words with not only him but his…' His thoughts were cut off as the door on the roof across from him was thrown open. The pool of light created from a rooftop bulb revealed eight people wearing head to toe black clothes with grey vests and white masks with red markings. On the back of each vest was a blood red insignia of a large cats head with three claw marks running through it. Two of them were female while the rest were male.

'Two assault rifles, three machetes, one spear, one dual wielder, and the carrier,' Argent thought to himself pulling out his _specially procured_ item.

"Quickly we don't have much ti…" one of the women started saying before the sharp retort of two rifle shots cut her off. Her attention was drawn to one of the rifle holders who let out an "Urk..." before falling face first onto the ground revealing two lightning Dust crystals protruding from his back. This was quickly followed by the sound of electricity jumping through the air and the collapse of the second rifleman. Behind him a man stood in a dark grey and brown robe. The stranger lifted his hood at the same time that it shimmered and became a metallic silver color. He had White hair and was wearing a white and red mask identical to the ones they themselves were wearing.

"Quick get the goods to safety," yelled the female with a spear on her back to the man holding what appeared to be a one foot by one foot box. "The rest of you get this punk!"

"You're not going anywhere scum," Argent replied, venom dripping from his voice, as he charged the man holding the box. He was intercepted by the first swordsman who came at him with a heavy horizontal swing. Argent quickly ducked under the slow swing bringing him to his attackers back. The second swordsman then attacked with an overhand chop that Argent parried with a twist of his body and a spin of his staff. This put the second swordsman behind him and the first swordsman in front of him with the gun end of his staff pointing towards swordsman number two's stomach and the crystal end pointing towards the turning figure of swordsman number one. Argent pulled the trigger shooting a regular bullet at the man behind him. Instead of holding onto the weapon Argent released it and let the recoil push it into the first swordsman's gut. The silver clad fighter then quickly grabbed the gun end of his weapon and brought the crystal end up into the chin of the doubled over swordsman. With a spin of his staff and a twist of his body he then swung the crystal end at the second attacker's head and hit with a satisfying crunch that knocked him out cold.

Seeing an opening the third swordsman readied to attack the man who had hurt his compatriots. The sound of lightning hitting a body, a man crying out in pain, and the sharp tang of ozone in the air, distracted him. Argent quickly took advantage of his distraction and jabbed his sword arm with the lightning crystal of his staff. Though the attack was light the staff wielder charged the crystal with aura. The resulting shock caused the man's fingers to go numb dropping his sword and to take a step back. Only to find his opponents staff between his legs causing him to lose balance. Argent helped him to the ground with a well-placed punch to the throat. The third swordsman collapsed clutching his throat and trying to pull air into his lungs.

Argent glanced over at the carrier and noted his unconscious form next to the fire escape. 'Good my trap worked' he thought to himself before facing the other two people still able to stand on the rooftop.

"Well aren't you the cheeky little brat," the spear wielder sneered as she readied her weapon. 'She has brown hair. Looks like I didn't technically lie to Mr. Smith,' Argent thought offhandedly as he readied his staff. The brunette lunged forward trying to impale Argent. He quickly parried with his staff causing her to overbalance. Before he could take advantage of this fact the dual-wielder joined the fray and wove a web of steel trying to cut the silver coated vigilante to pieces. Argent then realized the trap as the spear he thought was over extended swept at his legs throwing off his stance. He desperately tried to parry the two swords even as he kept backpedaling to avoid falling over. While he did manage to avoid any grievous wounds he did take quite a few small cuts. The dual wielder brought both her blades in a scissoring cut at the flailing man's legs. Argent brought his staff down blocking both slashes but at the exact moment he did she dropped to the floor as a spear head was arcing towards his head.

Unable to block or dodge Argent fortified the aura around his head and hoped for the best. Stars filled his vision as the attack connected. He threw himself backwards into a roll to avoid any follow up strikes. 'If I'm going to be blind the so are they,' Argent thought as he produced a Dust crystal from inside his coat and threw it as he rolled. A flash of light and the sound of effeminate distress let him know he had succeeded.

He spit out blood as his vision cleared showing the two women in defensive stances and waiting. Argent pushed a button and the clip case attached to his staff and ejected it. He replaced it with a dark grey case with the letter M on it. 'I only have two shots of this stuff,' he thought to himself while trying to come up with a plan. "I'm really going to regret tonight when I have to balance my checkbook," he whispered to himself.

The three fighters stared each other down for one… two… three… heartbeats before Argent moved. He leveled his weapon at the two women opposite him and fired once, twice. The first shot was blocked by a spinning spear the second by a sword. Argent charged. The spear wielder and the dual-wielder smirked as he came closer. Their smirks quickly turned to expressions of surprise as their weapons clanged together in a powerful magnetic attraction. Argent swung his staff in a diagonal arc, the dual-wielder tried to parry with her second weapon but was at the wrong angle to do it properly and the staff knocked it aside easily. The silver clad fighter followed this up with a right hook to the jaw knocking her down. Since she hadn't let go of the sword that was magnetized to the spear she brought her ally down with her. Argent raised his staff above his head and brought it down savagely on the back of the brunette's head. He caught her compatriot in the temple on the upswing. Both stopped moving afterwards.

Breathing heavily he leaned on his staff trying to recover from the battle. After the adrenaline wore off and the tunnel vision ended he heard police sirens that were getting closer, fast. Swearing to himself Argent ran towards the box the man had in his hands and picked it up. His heart fell to his feet when he saw that it was combination locked as well as had a GPS tracking device. Realizing that those who had the combination were out cold and that he couldn't risk anyone tracking his movements he dropped the box activated his coats camouflage feature and disappeared into the night.

* * *

"Tell me child, why do you take up arms?"

•

"Because peace can't last,"

"•• •••• •••••• •'• •••••••• •••• ••••,"

"••'• ••• •'•• •••• •••• •••••,"

"•• ••• ••• •••• •••••• • ••• ••••,"


	2. The Copper Vindicator

The Copper Vindicator

The afternoon sun streamed through the window, striking a pile of blankets and pillows stacked up in a heap on the bottom half of a bunkbed. A groan came from under the cuddly pile, with no answer. Again the groan came, more insistent this time but met the same fate as the one before it. Finally, the pile started moving before a copper haired, seventeen-year-old girl popped out from under it. She started rubbing the sleep from her eyes while two extremely large rounded ears twitched this way and that. "Enjoy your nap?" whispered a voice from across the room. Though the voice was so soft that many would not have heard it, the girl's large ears easily picked it up.

"I quuuuiiiiiiiiite enjoyed it," yawned the sleepy girl displaying a pair of impressive canines. She finally opened up her eyes to the harsh glare of the sun, revealing a pair of eyes almost entirely brown save for small beady pupils. She looked blearily around the room until her eyes fell on a figure across the room standing in front of a mirror trying to choose between two different dresses. The two girls looked almost identical save for two large differences; the first was while the girl on the bed was 5'5'' the girl standing in the mirror was barely four feet, the second difference was while the taller girl had short unkempt hair, the shorter one's hair was long, glossy, and was better cared for.

Picking up a brush the taller girl waded through the pile of rejected outfits that littered the floor. Once she finally made it to the other side she started brushing the other girl's hair using smooth even strokes. "You sure about this?" she asked. "-sigh- Aeris, you asked me that before you took your nap, you asked me at lunchtime, you asked me at breakfast, you asked me this morning after we woke up, you asked me that last night after the graduation ceremony, and a hundred times in-between. Why would you think my answer has changed?" the shorter girl whispered tossing down the outfits she had been holding and picking up another pair. "Optimism, mostly," Aeris replied.

"I know you don't like him," Aeris gave a very un-lady like snort. "But he's nice once you really get to know him."

"And how well do you 'really know him, Aera?"

"…well…enough," Aera whispered, quiet even by her own standards. "But I want to do this and I'm going to do this," Aera whispered with much more confidence, locking eyes with Aeris through the mirror. The two held each other's eyes for a charged moment before Aeris sighed and continued working on Aera's hair. "I never said you couldn't go, just trying to talk you out of it." Aera hmphed in triumph before returning to choosing an outfit before noticing something off. "Wait why are you braiding my hair, I wanted to wear it loose?"

"You don't want it to get tangled in Tolling Bell do you?"

"Why would I take TB out on a date?"

"Because you're meeting him near the campus limits, you know where the forest is. And I just don't trust him."

"But that's going to be a real mood killer."

"Pwease, do it for your bwig sister," Aeris pleaded, pouting and batting her eyelashes. Aera held Aeris' stare before finally breaking and capitulated. "Four minutes, older by four minutes," Aera grumbled while moving over to the closet. "And don't you foerget it," Aeris said in a sing song voice.

* * *

Aera and Aeris stood outside their Sanctum dorms, well Aera stood, Aeris was fussing over her younger sister. She may not agree with her decision but she was going to make sure she looked perfect doing it. "How do I look?" Area asked twirling. "Like you deserve someone better than him." Aera shot her sister a withering glare. "And remember…" Aeris began. "…ten o'clock curfew, no touching, and yes I have you on speed dial. Anything else mom?" Aera whispered sarcastically. "Nope, stay safe." With that Aeris waved off Aera as she walked off. As soon as Aera had rounded the corner Aeris sped back into the dorm building and back up to their room. The moment she entered her room she locked the door and began changing into her combat attire. A pair of camo combat pants and a black shirt. Nothing fancy like some of the other students she had seen with their combat skirts and corsets. They were made by her cousin who was a near prodigy when it came to dust infusion. They were simple, efficient, and didn't get in her way. Just the way she liked it. She then pulled out her one nod to vanity, a dark blue-green bandana with an insignia of imbalanced scales that she tied around her head, hiding her perpetually disheveled orange hair.

Next she pulled out her weapons, the first was a fully automatic sum-machine gun weapon that was the same blue-green color as her bandana. She had fought her cousin on the coloring, but he was incredibly stubborn when it came to his creations. The next weapon was a smaller semi-automatic hand gun. With a push of a button both weapons transformed into a long sword and a short sword. Another button and the most impressive function was revealed as the two weapons merged into an assault rifle. She had no idea how it worked, but she made sure to follow every maintenance instruction her cousin gave her. Wrath and Reason, no she didn't know why he named them that and frankly he was too long winded to ask, was some of his finest work. Not his best though, that honor belonged to Tolling Bell.

She separated her weapons, twirled them once, then sheathed them. Wrath diagonally across her back, and Reason at her waist. Having prepared she walked over to the window, opened it, and jumped out. As she was falling she drew on her aura and shaped it. Her hand became coated in a dark blue-green material. She focused on the material on her hand and expanded it. It grew at incredible speed forming a claw on the end that dug into the bark of a nearby tree. With another thought the material retracted and pulled her to the tree where she alighted on a sturdy branch. Her ears twitched picking up all sounds, giving her a clearer picture of her surroundings. She leapt from branch to branch moving across the school's campus. She landed on another branch and caused blue-green spikes to jut out from her shoes, anchoring her in place.

She pulled out a pair of binoculars from one of her belt pouches and started scanning the campus walk-ways. There she found Aera walking with a spring in her step and humming a tune. Or at least Aeris assumed she was humming, even with her sharp hearing she was too far away to hear, which meant that she was too far away for Aera to hear her as well. It wasn't that she didn't trust her sister, no that wasn't right, she didn't trust her sister. Aera tended to develop tunnel vision when she got a crush on a boy. And according to her sources and…ahem…observations, she really didn't trust or like the guy, and of course Aera would never listen to what she had to say concerning him. So, being the kindly protective older sister she was, she was going to keep an eye on them just to make sure nothing untoward happened.

* * *

Aera had made it to the rendezvous and was waiting twirling the large braid that held her hair. Aeris perched herself on a branch some ways away also waiting. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting long," said a handsome boy stepping into the clearing Area was waiting in. "No I just got here Trevor," Aera whispered with a smile. "I'm sorry, what was that," Trevor said holding his hand to his ear. Aera smiled and moved closer so he could hear her. She was on cloud nine, Trevor was actually here. "I just got here," she repeated after she had moved to stand next to him. "Oh good. You look really nice tonight," He complimented her with a smile. "Th-thanks," She said as her cheeks lit up. "Do-do you mind if I take a picture? My friends never listened to me when I talked about how cute you are."

"O-okay," Aera whispered light-headed from his attention. "Thanks here just stand there, perfect." Trevor said positioning Aera and pulling out his scroll. "Ready? One, two, three, cheese!" Aera smiled just as red, viscous liquid dropped down on her from above.

* * *

Aeris started leaping from branch to branch as quickly as she could when she saw the others approaching her sister, but she wasn't fast enough to prevent the prank. She stopped and looked on in horror as Trevor and his friends took pictures. "Sorry I couldn't get real blood, but I really didn't want to see you actually drink it." Trevor laughed high-fiving his friends. That alleviated one of Aeris fears as she got close enough to smell the colored corn syrup. Tears started running down Aera's face and mixing with thesyrup coating her before she broke from the group and bolted into the forest.

Aeris wanted to drop down among the group and wring every last one of their pathetic little necks, but Aera needed her more than she needed revenge. "Did you see the look on her face when we dropped the syrup on her?"

"You got the picture right, Trevor?"

"Yeah I got it but the best part was when she thought that I thought she was cute. I could barely keep a straight face." Aeris' eye twitched but she kept her course following the path left by Aera. "Why would you think a Faunus is cute, what did she think you were into bestiality or something?" Aeris stopped at those words. These…these…CRETINS were laughing at her sister. At her hope, optimism, feelings, and species. The anger she had kept lidded boiled over and consumed her, she hadn't even realized that she had drawn Wrath and Reason and turned back towards the group until she heard one of them silence the others.

* * *

"Shh, shh, come on guys I thought I heard something." One of the girls said quieting the group. "It's probably just your imagination Samantha. Come on it's getting dark let's get back," Trevor said turning to leave before something caught his attention out of the corner of his eyes. A few weapons were drawn indicating others in the group had seen too. Night had fallen and they were too far away from Sanctum for the light to be all that useful making it hard to discern details of the intruder. But one thing stood out to him, the light of the shattered moon reflected off its eyes in a way that it couldn't do with human eyes. "Faunus," he hissed.

"Apologize." The figure commanded pointing the longer of its blades at the group. One of his friends handed Trevor his weapon, a simple longsword/rifle combo. "And if we don't," he smirked. The figure said nothing, but instead it backed up into the shadows and disappeared. "A bluff?"

"I don't know; I can't see that well."

"Let's get out of he-" before the boy could finish his thought Aeris fell from the canopy and landed on him, bearing him to the ground. The group whirled around but froze at the sound of gun fire. This was quickly followed by the whirring of gears as the pistol changed into a short sword. The group hesitated, but Aeris didn't. She was on top of Trevor immediately and swung her two blades for his neck. He brought his sword up just in time to save himself from a too close shave. This close he was able to make out his attacker clearer, and it was then he remembered that Aera had a twin sister. One of his friends came to his rescue and tried to cut the Faunus down with their battle axe. However, Aeris back flipped over the attack causing Trevor to follow suit so as not to get hit himself.

Aeris continued flipping back, creating space between her and the group. As she performed her final flip she brought her weapons together and transformed them into their assault rifle mode. "Find cover!" A voice shouted just as Aeris started unloading her magazine at them, hatred in her eyes. The group, minus the one on the ground, fled into the foliage.

"She's stopped," whispered a boy to a girl as they crouched behind a fallen log. "Who is she?" asked the girl, nervously clutching her punching daggers. "I don't know," answered the boy as he peered over the log looking for signs of their assailant. "We just need to regroup and head back to the school, Mary. Mary?" The boy turned back around but the only sign that Mary had been there were her discarded punching daggers. Suddenly a snap above his head drew his attention skyward. He picked up the discarded blades, cursing himself for not bringing his own weapon. Another snap and his adrenaline was pumping. "Come out! Show yourself and fight like a real warrior!" He shouted trying to conjure courage he didn't feel. Cold steel pressed up against his throat as he felt a presence directly behind him and a voice whispered into his ear. "A real warrior takes any advantage they can."

* * *

Trevor turned this way and that way. He had gotten separated and only the occasional muffled grunt, or gunshot were his only indications that he wasn't alone. He swept his rifle around, trying to peer through the darkness. Movement caught his eye and he leveled his gun and fired. Unlike the numerous other times he thought he saw movement and fired, only for the bullet to whiz through the air and into the foliage, this time the sound of metal hitting metal filled the small clearing he was in as the bullet ricocheted into a nearby tree.

"So you finally show yourself…Aerin?" With his enemy now in his sights he regained his confidence, now he could fight. "What, didn't want to try and sneak attack me like the others you coward?"

"No, I want you to see your retribution coming," Aeris said raising her two blades and crouching, ready to attack. "Fine, let's get this over with!" Trevor shouted, unloading his clip at Aeris. Before the first bullet had left Trevor's barrel Aeris was already sprinting towards him. She deflected bullet after bullet in her beeline for Trevor. And just as she made it to him he shifted his weapon into a sword and locked blades with Aeris. He tried to sweep her legs out from under her but she leapt up and shifted Reason into a gun and fired. Trevor rolled out of the way before running his finger along the flat of his blade causing fire to engulf the weapon. Aeris sheathed Reason and used wrath in both hands to fend off the flaming sword, almost getting burned at one time. With a twist and heave Trevor sent Wrath flying through the air. Desperate Aeris tried to grapple with the boy, but he was taller and heavier than her and after a short struggle threw her away from him. "Getting desperate Faunus?" He taunted keeping his fire sword up. "Nope, got exactly what I wanted," Aeris said tossing a scroll up and down. "What!" Trevor said looking down at his pocket while his hand searched for his scroll. But, his scroll was still where he left it. He looked back up to Aeris only to feel the barrel of a pistol press against his forehead. "I gave you the chance to apologize," Aeris said pulling the trigger. A rubber bullet slammed into Trevor's forehead causing him to see spots and pass out briefly. When he came to, Aeris was sitting on his chest, keeping her gun pressed against his head.

"I-I'm sor-"

"Don't give me that. You're only sorry because I'm stronger than you. Well guess what, Aera's stronger than you too. She's just far nicer than I am. And if you so much as look at her again, I won't use rubber bullets next time. Got it!"

"G-g-go-"

"GOT IT!"

"Yes, yes, I got it," Trevor stammered out not taking his eyes off of Reason. Seemingly satisfied Aeris pulled her gun away as Trevor sighed with relief. "Oh and one more thing. We're fruit bats you jerk!" She shouted pistol whipping the boy into unconsciousness. She fished in his pockets and pulled out his scroll, adding it to the others she had taken. She found Wrath and placed all the…acquired…scrolls in a pile on the forest floor, before turning it all into powder with both her guns.

She took a few minutes considering the pile of powdered plastic when a boom reverberated through the trees. "What?…Wait that means…Aera!" Aeris shouted sprinting in the direction of the sound.

* * *

"Tell me child, why do you fight?"

•

"Because peace can't last,"

"To show others I'm stronger than them,"

"••'• ••• •••• •••• •'•• •••• •••••,"

"•• ••• ••• •••• •••• • ••• ••••,"


End file.
